The Queen's Blade

13. My Friend

"Where the HELL were you two?!"

Eli and Finian were, quite understandably, extremely mad at us. I had stumbled into the tavern, carrying a prince suffering from some pretty bad blood loss, which has caused quite a stir. Now we sat in the infirmary, Lucian in a bed, me sitting at his side, and Eli and Finian pacing back and forth and yelling at us.

"Please, Eli," Lucian said to him, "It was my idea. I convinced Serena that we would have a good chance to save her parents tonight, but we miscalculated. We're okay though, you see? I'll heal in perfectly good time."

"Are you stupid?!" Finian yelled, his face pale, "You could have died out there! What would have happened in that scenario?!"

Lucian looked away from Finian. "I don't know. I'm sorry."

Eli was still frantic. He pressed his hands to his face and tried to just calm himself by breathing slowly for a moment. I'd never seen him talking so much.

"Luc," He said slowly, "From now on, the palace is going to be guarded way more heavily. The dungeons, especially. Since you killed the guy, they don't know it was you, but not many people around here have guns so they can take a lucky guess. Mother and Father will stay at the palace more, train the guards better, make our lives worse..."

Finian punched the wall out of frustration, and instantly yelped and recoiled, "OW! Damn it, why are these walls so solid?!"

"Guys-" I started, hoping to calm them.

"Serena," Eli said, looking at me like he just noticed I was there. "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they? Because if they did, then I swear-"

"No no, it's okay, I'm fine," I reassured him, "Just bruised. And my outfit got all messy. I hate that it got messy."

Eli sighed in relief and cracked a smile. "You're ridiculous. But I- I'm really glad you're okay."

He turned to Lucian. "I'm still mad at you," He said, "But I'm so glad you're still alive. I'm gonna go get some sleep, and the rest of you guys should too."

Lucian nodded, "I'll sleep here tonight. You guys go on ahead."

"I'll stay for a little while," Finian said, "I'm not done chewing you out, Luc."

He sighed and smiled, "What would I do without you, Fin? Alright then. Goodnight, Eli and Serena."

"Goodnight" The two of us responded. We then went to the door, and I held it open for Eli so that he could walk past. As soon as we were a little ways down the hallway, he stopped me.

"I just wanna say that-" He started, but I cut him off.

"I'm sorry about what I said, Eli."

He blinked in surprise. "That- um- well- I was literally going to say that. I-I'm sorry too," He stammered.

I giggled, "You know, you're cute when you're all awkward like this."

He turned bright red and stammered, "You really think I'm- uh, I mean, thank you?"

I just laughed harder. He really didn't know how to talk when he got all flustered like this. He seemed a bit lost for words, but then he laughed too. The whole situation just felt ridiculous, for seemingly no reason.

We headed back to our rooms, still giggling every now and then. We reached my room first, and I opened the door.

"Well, goodnight Eli," I said to him with a smile, "Sleep well."

"Yeah, goodnight Serena," He replied, no longer flustered, "And I promise you, next time we attack, we'll save your parents."